Help American Angels Support Our Troops!

This is a cause that is close to my heart as I have a son who is currently in Iraq. Just saying that makes me cringe, but, yes, it was his choice, there is no draft, and we support him 274% (and want him to come home SOON!)

The following is taken directly from Knitting For Charity’s website:

A World of Ways to Make a Difference
If you love to craft, American Angels can use your help. There’s almost no skill they can’t put to work helping a soldier or their family, and knitting is certainly not an exception. Just a few things you could knit for this worthy charity include:

–black hats for winter helmet liners
Pattern here (personally, when I make these, I make the neck ribbing a bit longer so it covers more of the neck, oh, and just an FYI… make them out of superwash wool, or they will shrink. Ask me how I know. Ugh!
–slippers for soldiers overseas or in hospitals
–Christmas stockings, tree skirts, or ornaments
–an afghan (or “comfortghan”) for a wounded solider.

In addition to all this, American Angels has two subprojects that really stand out: the Baby Project and Heroghans.

The Citizen Sam website, here, has more ideas.

Oh, and, Merry Christmas Everyone!! Go out and play in the snow today.

I rarely understand why something becomes a trend in crafting. Gnomes and geese are both cute I guess, but I never thought we’d be making them for all seasons. (See, for example, this collection of gnome knitting patterns, or these knit geese.)

Another one I don’t totally understand is sardines or little fish more generally. Sure, they’re cute, and the shape is fun, but I had no idea when I was sharing this pattern for a fish-shaped pouch last year that it would become a hugely popular pattern that people are still searching for on the site. It is pretty cute, though, so if you weren’t around then or don’t remember you should got check it out.

Recently another fishy knitting pattern crossed my monitor: the little knit fish from Classical Songbird Designs.

Just as the name suggests, these fish are little, about 4.5 inches or 11 cm from end to end. They look like little sardines and take about 12 yards of sock yarn to make.

You can even make a two-tone fish and use just 6 yards of each color.

This sounds to me like just about the perfect use for the yarn that’s left over after knitting a pair of socks, or a mini skein or several that have been sitting around unused in your stash.

The fish are knit flat in one piece, which makes it easy to stitch on the eyes with more yarn or embroidery floss before stuffing, and you can stitch up the sides while you stuff (though it’s not a very big piece so you could probably stitch and then stuff, finishing with the end of the tail).

Because I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one wondering, I measured an Altoids box and as the pattern is written the fish are a little too big to fit in it (the box is about 4 inches/10 cm long). But you could make the fish a little smaller if you want to make a box of them. Or just make a fishy bag to put them in!

You can grab the free pattern for the little knit fish at Classical Songbird Designs.

[Photo: Classical Songbird Designs.]

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